Worst Waffles Ever
by Jotasta
Summary: Artemis and Roy live together now, a happy couple. After years of arguing, they finally come together. Artemis and Roy are both as stubborn as ever, but it works for them. Longshot oneshots.
1. Breakfast

The smell of breakfast quickly wrenched Roy Harper from sleep, his stomach growling hungrily.  
Last nights patrol had been brutal and he was sore down to the bone. He got up, wincing as a bruise on his backside ached painfully. A thug had landed a solid kick to his tailbone, making him slpat to the ground face first in a very undignified way. The thug, in return, had gotten a trick arrow to the face that covered his body with a slimy goop that Roy knew for a fact took days to wash off. (He would know. He had gotten some trick arrows as a gift from Ollie, and curiosity won him over. Needless to say, he got that stuff in places he didn't even know he had.)  
He stretched, letting his joints pop and crack as he got out of bed. Following his nose to the kitchen of his small apartment, he found his girlfriend at the table, eating waffles. Artemis looked just as disheveled from sleep as he did, but had obviously gotten up some time earlier as her hair was still damp from a shower, wavy clumps of it cascading down her back. She made a small noise, acknowledging his existance. Artemis wasn't exactly a morning person, claiming that mornings were the bane of her existance. Then again, Roy wasn't a fan of them either.  
"Morning, sunshine," he muttered, voice gravelly and laced with sleep. He shuffled to the cabinet, extracting a plate. The plates were a purchase from a garage sale, the entire plastic set a mere fifteen dollars. In all honesty, they were the ugliest things Roy had ever seen, the plastic a gaudy shade of lime green that reminded him of Sprite. Artemis, however, loved them. Because of that, he put up with them.  
Artemis made another noise, yawning and rubbing her eye with the back of her hand. Cracking a smile, Roy took a bite of the waffle. He froze mid chew, the taste of the waffle... off. Chewing slowly, he tried to diagnose the awful taste before forcing himself to swallow.  
"These.. Taste like shit." He muttered, pushing his plate away. He wasn't very hungry anymore. Artemis glared up at him, lips pouty. "I made those," she said peevishly, taking his plate and eating them herself. She didn't seem to have an issue with the flavor.  
"Still taste like shit," he said, getting up to go the fridge. He scanned the contents for something edible- the only appealing foods being American cheese and some strawberries. He chose the strawberries, making a mental note to tell Artemis that the fridge needed cleaning.  
"How rude," she said through a mouthful of waffles, sitting cross legged in her chair. She was wearing one of his oversized t-shirts, covering her bare olive legs in an infuriatingly attractive manner, Roy noticed.  
"Is it gonna be just us again tonight?" she asked, uncrossing her legs and taking the empty plate to the kitchen sink, rinsing it off. Despite himself, Roy found himself staring as the shirt crept up and revealed more skin when she leaned over the counter.  
"Dunno." He shrugged, taking the oppritunity to go over to her and wrap his arms around her waist. She smiled, leaning into the embrace. He wasn't the overly affectionate type, but he had his moments.  
"I miss the team," She admitted, leaning her head back into his chest. It had been ten years since she joined the team, five since Wally dumped her for a girl named Linda, and three since Roy started acting civil towards her. Civil turned to friendly, friendly turned to friends with benefits, friends with benefits turned into a relationship after Roy asked her out on a date. Artemis, being stubborn as she was, had turned him down abruptly, saying that their "thing," wasn't romantic at all. However, she had surprised him by showing up, totally dressed up and looking gorgeous.  
Roy just shrugged, burying his face in her long blonde hair. It smelled like shampoo- "fresh ocean breeze," as it was advertised. She forever complained that it took too long to wash her hair and she might as well cut it off, but Roy insisted that she never cut it. Ever.  
"Lets go do something," she said, twisting in his arms and kissing him on the cheek. He sighed. "And get some pants on, Boxers." she swatted at his (extremely bruised) butt as she strode past to their room, causing him to flinch and let out a strangled yelp. Manly.  
Wincing, he finished off the last of the strawberries and tossed the empty container in the trash, following Artemis into the bedroom that they shared- and had shared for over a year.


	2. Cotton Candy

"You can't be serious," Roy said somewhat contemptiously, eyebrow arched. He held the ticket to the amusement park between two fingers, the paper rustling in the November breeze. "How long have you had this planned?"  
"A while," she grinned slyly, sliding her ticket under the glass of the ticket booth. Roy followed suit, staring at the arching and looping rollercoasters that peeked over the gates. He wasn't the biggest fan of them, despite the fact that he leapt rooftops without batting an eyelash. The scruffy looking man working at the booth nodded, allowing them entry into the overly-crowded theme park.

"Places like these are just-" he started, but was interrupted by a fist to his shoulder.  
"Just stop talking right there, okay?" she said, eyes everywhere but him. There was so much to look at- this was her first time at an amusement park for purely recreational reasons. She could never afford it growing up, so she thought now was just a good of time to go. Roy grumbled something under his breath, but she didn't bother to figure out what he said. The shoving crowds, the laughing children, the screams, the wooshing of rollercoasters.. It was all so fun.  
Roy peered down at her, hands in his pockets. She was acting as if she had never been to a fair before, face lit up as if she were a kid on Christmas morning. Considering her past, she probably hadn't. The fact that she was happy made this entire dumb trip slightly worthwhile.  
She tugged on his sweater sleeve, pointing at a ride that made even Red Arrow, the fearless archer, feel queasy. It was a monster of a roller coaster, loops and dives too numerous to count.  
"I could take that, easy." She said proudly, walking quickly to the surprisingly short line. Roy hesitated, the looming ride quite unsettling.  
"Aww, are you scared?" Artemis taunted, tearing his stare from the daunting ride. "Ha!" he barked a laugh, smirking as he joined her in line, "Not a bit." He hid whatever anxious feelings with a superior smirk, leering down at her. "Unless you are."  
"In your dreams, Harper," she sneered, leaning back on the guardrail that blocked in the queue line. The roller coaster was in use, faint screaming heard in the distance. "I bet you that I can go without screaming the entire ride," she went on, voice laced with confidence.  
"I bet you have never even ridden one before," he chuckled, cracking his knuckles loudly out of nervous habit. It was safe to assume so, seeing how cocky she was being about it. Any sane person wouldn't want to go on this ride.

Artemis and Roy boarded the rollercoaster, picking seats in the front. As the cars started rolling slowly, Roy could see (with some amount of smugness) that Artemis looked anxious- just in the slightest bit. But she feigned a mask of coolness, face slack and blank- an expression that Roy learned to know over time.  
Roy could read Artemis like a book. Sure, she was stubborn as hell and sassy enough for the both of them, but she didn't put up with any crap from anyone. She could look a serial killer in the eye without flinching, and yet Disney movies made her have mini emotional breakdowns. She would eat an entire row of oreos, but refuse some of his cooking because she had to "keep her figure," even though she was all muscle and skinny as a rail. She might be mad at him for an entire day without giving poor Roy a reason why, and the next day act like nothing had ever happened.  
The roller coaster began its ascent, making both archers instinctively grip their seats tighter. As the peak of the ride grew closer, Artemis definitely becan to feel some regrets for being so cocky. She could already feel a shriek building up in the back of her throat. She wasn't even one for screaming, the drop just seemed so high and-  
She was yelling at the top of her lungs before the drop even started, her stomach flip-flopping and heart racing. Her hair was probably all in a poor strangers face behind her, but that was the least of her worries. She had screaming to do.

"So, you're telling me that you have never been on a roller coaster before," Roy said, taking another bite out of his cotton candy. The sticky sweetness gave him a pounding headache, but it was two bucks and he wasn't about to waste his hard-earned cash.  
Artemis shook her head, daintily picking a piece off and popping it in her mouth. And for a first time, it was an adventure.  
"You know," she mused, looking up at Roy fondly, "If someone had told me ten years ago that we were..." she struggled to find the right words, "...Eating cotton candy together," she decided, letting the fluffy sugar melt in her mouth, "I would have laughed my ass off."  
"Me too," Roy admitted. Despite her being in her mid-twenties, Artemis could sure act like a kid sometimes. Or maybe when she was fifteen, she acted like an adult. Either way, Roy loved who she was.


End file.
